The Dacian-Getic pottery developed by using a wheel operated with the
foot while molding. The Romans brought to Dacia a new style in pottery
art, developed by adapting the forms of the Greek art in a simplified version,
a style that lasts to this day. Later on, the influences of the Byzantine
ceramics with enamel, as well as introduction to European art, brought
about the emergence of a local production (Curtea de Arges) that,
together with the old traditional Dacian-Getic and Roman art, cultivated
a bright chromatism made with a brush or a horn arranged in original shapes.
Classified according to the burning system, Romanian ceramics include two
groups: (a) the black ceramics of Dacian tradition; and (b) the red ceramics,
whose development has been influenced by the assimilation of elements of
Roman origins. The black ceramics have tall, slim, or conic shapes and
generally show a simple, discreet decoration of classical distinction.
The red unenameled ceramics show the elegance of their shapes and decorations
usually in white or brown and assert an aesthetic vision of accuracy and
consistency. A technique specific of Romanian pottery, jiravirea
cu gaita, or a manner of scratching the clay that permits the
colors painted on the pottery to intermingle without mixing, results in
a pattern of intertwined delicate lines. Romanian folk ceramics have a
multitude of traditional methods and techniques, which are:(a) angobare,
the covering of the surface of the pottery with very fine, usually white,
clay in order to seal its porosity and hide its colour; (b) glazing,
the laying of a protective stratum resembling enamel but which is transparent;
(c) graphiting, the colouring of the surface by rubbing it with
fine coal or graphite; (d) imbrinare, the sticking
of thin clay rolls having ornamental functions on the surface of the unburnt
pot by pressing them with the fingers; (e) incision, a decoration
system consisting in the scraping of the unburnt surface with simple drawings
, usually linear, then spirals and meanders, taking care that the edges
of the cut should not have lateral irregularities; (f) inlay, the
filling of the excised parts on the surface of the pot with coloured material;
(g) jiravire, a device characteristic only of Romanian
ceramics, achieved with the help of a gaita (a comb with
hair cogs) which allows the painted colours to intermingle without mixing;
(h) polishing, the rubbing of the surface of the pot, which is still
unburnt, with a hard object in order to make the surface compact and thus
lend it a black metallic shine; (i) enameling, the covering of the
pot with an opaque layer of metallic oxides (sometimes tin or zinc) vitrified
by baking; and (j) zgrafitare, the scraping of the unburnt
part so that the clay background should appear, which has darker colour
after burning.